Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Obama and Free Speach

I don’t know this paper very well, so maybe this is off, but it’s certainly worth considering. Apparently an independent group developed a television ad about Obama’s relationship with weather underground bomber Bill Ayres, who has a history of bombing government buildings and a few years ago stated that he was not the least bit sorry and feels that they did not do enough.

Obama’s campaign has encouraged supporters to flood television stations withprotests whenever they see the ad. Nothing wrong with that, but the other thrustof the Obama response was to ask the Justice Department to intervene to stopfurther airing of the ad. That’s where Obama crossed the line and raised aquestion of fundamental importance — does he or does he not believe the FirstAmendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech?

Now, if the information was libelous, I could see trying to get the law involved, but there is no real indication of this, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

The Obama campaign describes the ad as “false, despicable and outrageous,”according to The Associated Press. If the ad is false, the Obama campaignshould have no trouble refuting it, which would likely be sufficient topersuade stations to decline the ad. Yet we’ve seen no suchrefutation.

If it is false, he should state what is false about it. But he has not, leading me to believe that there is nothing demonstrably false stated in this ad.

I want Barack Obama to be a good candidate, I really do. This is not a sport where one side benefits if the other screws up, this is a real decision about who will make vital decisions that will affect the entire world. Things like this scare me.